304 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



CHAPTER III 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE, IMPROVEMENTS OF THE 



BREED, ETC. 



We now proceed to give a concise history 

 of the Horse, and to trace the improvement of 

 the indigenous breed of this country to its 

 present exalted state. It will show that our 

 efforts have been crowned with the most de- 

 cided success, and that our English Horses 

 are vastly superior to the parent stock to 

 which we have been first indebted for their 

 improvement, whether in size, strength, or 

 speed. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH HORSE. 



The early history of the Horse in this 

 country is involved in too much uncertainty to 

 speak of with any precision ; but it is said 

 that they were comparatively small in size, 

 and of a wild and uncultivated form. At a 

 very remote period, lost in the obscurity of 

 ages, the Horse was probably introduced into 

 this island. Whether he was, or was not 

 indigenous to it, previous to those vast or- 

 ganic changes by which the whole of oiir globe 

 and its inhabitants was at some time visited, 

 the rapid advances in the science of geology 

 may perhaps at some future time determine. 

 It is said Caesar found the British Horses re- 

 gularly harnessed to the war-chariots ; but it 



is supposed likely, that after England had 

 advanced from barbarism into a tolerable de- 

 gree of civilization, the use of the Horse was 

 principally diverted to domestic purposes, be- 

 cause our insular position made the ocean the 

 great arena of our warfare, and which tended 

 to lessen the importance of cavalry until the 

 breaking out of the civil wars. 



Unfortunately we are without any authentic 

 records of the state in which the breed of the 

 English Horse was found, beyond, compara- 

 tively speaking, a recent date. We know 

 almost nothing of it before the Commonwealth. 

 With the Restoration comes the merry mo- 

 narch, who set racing going again, which had 

 just lived a fitful season during the reign of 

 the first Charles. At this period (with the 

 exception of a few Arab stallions and mares 

 of a most uncertain lineage introduced during 

 the last reign,) the description of Horses to be 

 met with in Great Britain consisted of the 

 aboriginal race, similar in its characteristics 

 to the Irish " Clib," and Scottish " Shelty," of 

 the present day ; the ponderous Norman war 

 Horse, and the unwieldy Flanders mare, used 

 by the nobility to drag their state coaches and 

 to carry the pillions upon, which our buxo.Ti 



